Harrow Delight has been slow to fruit compared to Harrow Sweet and my Asian pears. I grafted HD with the intent of having it as an early pear followed by Dripping Honey and finishing up with Korean Giant.
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The Karls favorite is an excellent pollinator for warren. Many people have told me the difficulties that they have with this pear. Like most pears it is very easy to grow if we follow the rules and grow it with Karls favorite aka ewart as a pollinator. This one has callery for a rootstock. When you say it looks good that is a huge compliment coming from a fellow pear enthusiast. We collectively grow more pears than many research programs. There was a time when Nick Botner would have been on that list. A group has been desperately trying to save his collection. Iāve been reducing my collection from hundreds to around 50 - 100 types now. Im focusing in on fireblight resistant or ultra rare types of pears. @Fusion_power is rapidly expanding his pear collection. @scottfsmith like me i think is reducing his collection to his favorites and the ultra rare. He actually grows Champion a pear that often makes people wait 20 years on a pear. Im hoping to see many of these rare pears show up in the threads this year like champion. Many pears like champion aka Shannon literally have dissapeared from every source where information could once be found.
Harrow Delight fruits nearly as soon as i graft it here. It makes me wonder if this pear is temperamental and favors this location in Kansas over others. As i mentioned i have fireblight troubles with this pear some years. Maybe it is a moot point. Canadian fruits grown for the praries do very well here as a rule.
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From GRIN:
"Type: Unverified name
āShannonā is likely a synonym for āGrand Championā which originated in the orchard of W.F. Shannon."
Grand Champion is āa russet sport of Gorham which originated in the W.F. Shannon orchard in Hood River, Oregon, in 1936.ā
The name is Grand Champion. Also according to GRIN, Champion is the name of a quince.
I had a graft of Grand Champion grafted onto another variety that became diseased and needed to be taken out. I do have Gorham and it is an excellent tasting pear but is quite fire blight sensitive. I lost most of my tree to blight in late May 2021, had no strikes on the tree in the bad epidemic of 2022, and had a nice crop in 2023 - only a few fruit this year. It was at the top of my fruit tasting last year. My Gorham is grafted onto OHxF 333 and fruited in its 6th leaf. Not too bad.
My Karlās Favorite graft is growing like a weed! I would not be surprised if it blooms next year. Iāll send photos of Janaās Pear (probably Warren) and Magness. Both have excellent crops.
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Robert,
My desire when I started adding pears to my collection was to find late-ripening fruit that would hang on the tree into winter so I didnāt need refrigerator space for storage. Our mild climate does not allow cool room storage as fall temperatures are too warm. Passe Crassane was the best I found but I lost my tree and 5 grafts on other trees to fireblight. After my start 12 years ago, Iāve found some excellent winter pears but I need a dedicated refrigerator,
.
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At least it looks like the beetles focus on a few at time instead of taking a bite or two out of each one 
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The Green June Beetle is a minor pest for that reason but they are the most disgusting by a mile.
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Karls favorite will be a big surprise for most people that grow it. I enjoy Karls favorite!
Thatās the problem. The very finest pears always need some refrigeration to ripen. Iāve shrunk my fridge pears down to Comice and some of itās variants, FDML, and Honey Sweet. Everything else was grafted over to no fridge varieties. The no fridge pears are good, but they just donāt have that superb refinement of a winter pear.
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Does FDML = Fondante de Moulins Lille?
Also would like to know if ScottSmithās Fondante de moulle is actually Fondante de Moulins Lille?
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Yes. Thatās the abbreviation everyone on here gave it to keep from writing that long name.
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Yes it is the actual pear. For those who dont have fireblight they may want toalso consider Citron De Carmes pear aka Madeleine pear
Itās a good year for pears here in Oregon. Iāve got lots of butirra, red kalli, and comice. Even Shannon, usually a shy bearer, has a number of pears, which wonāt be ripe till autumn. Good for apples, as well.
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The tent caterpillars were bad all over BC last year. I imagine it could have had something to do with the climatic conditions, but not sure what factor or combination of factors cause it.
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Susan if you get a chance i would love to see a photo or 2 of your Shannon pear posted here Shannon pear aka Grand Champion pear . It is reportedly an excellent tasting pear! Like Tyson and others it makes us wait a long time for fruit im told! Please post a few pictures of all of them here we would love seeing them!
The tent catipillars seem to come and go but clear the webs as soon as you can it will decimate them next year.
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They have normal years and then once in a while they have an extreme population peak, feed the birds and then it drops. It may look like a one episode of X-files, but usually the trees do just fine. The folk remedy used to be cutting the branches and quickly burning them, which caused more damage than the caterpillars themselves. If possible, just hose them off.
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Hello, Clark.
The back yard is a jungle because I had two bad falls and it got neglected, but I think I can soon prune and trim my way out to the two trees, and take photos. They are awfully vertical because I havenāt been pruning them, but they seem healthy. Possibly after I send the photos the group could advise me about pruning them next winter. Next spring I should probably take and offer scion wood, since this does seem to be a very rare (but delicious) pear. Slow to come into bearing, but my trees are now 9 and 10 years old. I also have a butirra pear out there, possibly not a very common pear but not as rare as Shannon (Grand Champion.)
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Hope you have a speedy recovery. The work is always waiting in an orchard. We never run out of things to do. It is still rare, but BUTIRRA PRECOCE MORETTINI is still available. Shannon has nearly disappeared, so iām glad you will be sending out scions. I encourage everyone to grow harrow sweet so they get pears in a year or two when they start out. If they put in a shannon and a tyson at the same time those 10 years waiting for fruit pass by quickly. When someone is our age, they feel 10 years is along ways off, but it is like the blink of an eye.
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